Adrian Tchaikovsky's "THE DOORS OF EDEN"

Review by Dennis D. McDonald

This is a spectacularly creative and imaginative novel that I didn’t enjoy that much.

Why is that? It’s the characters. At times I did catch glimpses of the “sense of wonder” I achieved when reading the classic tales of Heinlein, Clarke, and Asimov in my youth. The management of multiple overlapping “Earths” is truly masterful along with the speculation on differing evolutionary paths of various species across the multiverse.

But the characters in Doors of Eden are just not that interesting and seem to be more appropriate to a more humdrum story. Too bad. Tchaikovsky has put an amazing amount of thought and planning into how his multiverses interact. It’s a pity the characters are so wooden. Bottom line: bring back the spiders and octopuses!

Review copyright 2022 by Dennis D McDonald